What have you done to prep today?

[68Camaro]

I am getting seven cans of food replaced from Augason Farms, with no problem and with no pictures.

ED

What was the problem with the Augason Farm's cans? Spoiled, damaged or ...?

Lol - that was in a thread from 18 months ago and you were one giving him advice on how to get reimbursed. The whole story is there under the Emergency Food Suppliers thread. Of course he's not going to answer it, because he's not with us any longer.

[Shazbot57]

I am getting seven cans of food replaced from Augason Farms, with no problem and with no pictures.

ED

What was the problem with the Augason Farm's cans? Spoiled, damaged or ...?

Lol - that was in a thread from 18 months ago and you were one giving him advice on how to get reimbursed. The whole story is there under the Emergency Food Suppliers thread. Of course he's not going to answer it, because he's not with us any longer.

Ah, I was catching up on some unread threads and replied without noticing it was from 8/2014. Not sure how it got on this thread but it got me wondering. Must be my old-timers disease kicking up again!

[Recyclersteve]

One thing that might be good for preppers to add to their list of things to hoard is plastic knives, forks and spoons (maybe straws too), especially those that are wrapped in plastic. If water is precious or contaminated, it would be good to have a bunch of plastic utensils for when the metal ones are all used up and it isn't feasible to wash them.

[johnbrickner]

. . . <snip> If water is precious or contaminated, it would be good to have a bunch of plastic utensils for when the metal ones are all used up and it isn't feasible to wash them.

Water is always precious.

Additionally, waste plastic abounds and can be distilled to make gasoline, kerosene, diesel, benzene, toluene and xylene and paraffin (candle wax) among other things depending on the plastic used. I'm no chemist but this seems like a no brainer to learn about.

[Changechecker]

Think I'm losing my mind. Toilet paper on sale this week so I decided to add some to replace the stash. I'm in line at the store with six 24 roll packs, lady behind me snickers. I told her it was Christmas presents for the people who have everything, except what they really need. She looked perplexed and I just smiled.

[pitw]

In case the feet swell or the shoes shrink.




They sure look like duck decoys.

[Changechecker]

Thought I would share another great thing that happened to me which will help my prepping. I have a fireplace and while it looks pretty, it has a voracious appetite. I don't have a wood source so I collect what I find while driving around scrapping. I also scout out free scrap from Craigslist. Few weeks ago I was perusing Craigslist Free section and an ad offered free firewood,ash and maple. I responded and was able to get several free loads of wood. The offered was a tree service. Guy only cuts trees and runs ads to get rid of wood. I left him my number. Today he messaged me and he has ash and maple again. All cut to size 18" -20" pieces. Probably three or four cord and the kicker is it is 6 minutes from my house. I drove there and his workers loaded my truck for me too. I'm sure you can imagine my smile tonight. I am truly blessed.

[wolvesdad]

Wow!! That is an awesome score!! Worth $50 easily!! (Prolly $100-150)

Congratz!

[Changechecker]

I was quite happy with this find so close to home. Even sweeter is that he (tree service guy) kept my number and reached out to me.

[Thogey]

Let's review.

[68Camaro]

Good grief - 2-1/2 years with no posts in this thread. We've inadvertently posted stuff that should have gone into here, in other threads.

[Changechecker]

Today I contacted my doctor and had them increase my allotment of my subscription. They amazingly complied. I was able to get a 90 day supply instead of the normal 30 day allotment. Why it takes a "crisis" to get them to do this is frustrating but glad to get it filled. Keep your medicine cabinet stocked when possible as no telling if there will be interruptions of necessary medications.

[Recyclersteve]

God help me if I fan the flames when it comes to toilet paper demand...

That said, one thing about TP that makes it difficult to gauge is this. How many people really know how much TP they use in, say, a month. I personally have no idea. TP is quite a bit cheaper than kleenex, so my wife uses TP to blow her nose. She uses a lot.

I have therefore written down how many rolls we have in the house and will track it by date to get a better idea.

Other things are much easier to gauge, but this one is tricky. I think that causes people to proclaim “better safe than sorry” and use that as rationale to hoard unnecessary amounts.

Another FYI on TP (and also Kleenex): Costco is much cheaper (20-30% or even more) on TP than Walmart. Walmart is 20-30% cheaper than Costco when it comes to facial tissue. Go figure.

P.S. Please refrain from flushing facial tissue and baby wipes. Check with your plumber or on Youtube to see why.

P.P.S. This thread is SOOO good I have it bookmarked. You might consider doing the same.

[Changechecker]

I tracked toilet paper use when I was raising kids as a family of four I think we used about one roll a day average. Girls tend to use more for obvious reasons. A co worker approached me earlier looking for toilet paper cause he and his wife are down to two rolls and cant find any. I mentioned I could barter my limited supply.
One roll for one silver dime. I have not been able to find any since this craziness started either.

[68Camaro]

The thing about prepping (and I want to post in this thread rather than one with a "hoarding" title) is that once you get properly prepared - a conventional emergency (and I mean something short of nuclear war, a magnetic field shift, or a killer asteroid impact) almost by definition doesn't leave you ill prepared.

We see news of lines forming, shelves emptying, fights breaking out, and people not able to get what they need. And yet... If they had been reasonably prepped there would have been little for them to do to get ready. And BTW if you prepare, you see many potential issues a day or a week or a month ahead of others and you get in front of it. My wife and I did top off a few things we use frequently, but we actually had to do very little in advance of the shelter in place order. At this point we are only periodically looking for refreshment of perishables (milk, fruit, etc) and those more for convenience or comfort.

Long term I hope that an outcome of.this is that a few more people will learn to keep themselves a bit better prepared. God gives us a brain for a reason. Please use it! (A mind is a terrible thing to waste.)

[Edit/addition]

And I should have added, a big reason to be prepped is so that you can help others. We obviously aren't putting a sign in our lawn to come rob us at gunpoint, but we do have a thread of various people (relatives, friends, neighbors, church) that we stay connected with and so we can be (and are) a support resource for those others that might find themselves in dire straits, sometimes through no fault of their own. This specific situation is one where some people can be caught out on the wrong side of a move, and trapped by it, needing some help. Because we have some level of preparedness, we are able to help others.

[fasteddy]

Living with the possibility of Hurricanes sure helps with preps...with the covid-19 we increased our acetaminophen quantity and purchased a few dozen bottles of gatoraide. Today I instructed the fam to fill their fuel tanks. I regularly rotate my diesel fuel but will increase my stock pile another 55 gallons and additional 55 gallons of gasoline, in case of total failure, besides costs are very low right now. Alcohol wipes for sterilizing injections sights kinda caught me off guard....however I do have many gallons of Isopyopyl alcohol and can use cleaning patches from my 12 gauge cleaning kit if we run out of swabs.

[Morsecode]

....however I do have many gallons of Isopyopyl alcohol and can use cleaning patches from my 12 gauge cleaning kit if we run out of swabs.

Nice. Someone is thinking outside the box.

[68Camaro]

One of the main questions one has to resolve when prepping is ... what events are you prepping for. I think it's time for those reading this thread to reassess what events are most likely in the coming years. Besides prepping for the usual weather events and calamities, in the coming decade I think we're at significant risk for 1) major inflation (maybe hyper, maybe just high), 2) higher taxation, and 3) a complete change in our trade relationship with China that might result in our unhealthy dependence upon cheap chinese goods being curtailed or completely cut-off.

I think these 3 events are of high enough probability that they have to be considered in any plans one makes.

[shinnosuke]

The looming questions in my mind are:
Are the George Floyd/BLM demonstrations winding down or just getting started?
Will the consequences of the demonstrations be short-lived or will there be a lasting effect?
What will Minneapolis, minus police, be like and will other cities initiate similar measures?

[68Camaro]

Those are interesting questions indeed. To encourage thought processes, I want to ask you (and others) to speculate on what paths might come from those questions and how they would affect your prepping. (The details person to person would obviously depend not only on what you think but on where you live.)

My 2 cents:

Regarding your first question - I think the demonstrations will continue, though I think they will change form. The "woke" left now has a bully pulpit being given them by the bulk of the mainstream media and the social media influencers; they are being funded, they have found a voice and a method of enforcing compliance, and they will not want to give that up, irrespective of any implemented supposed changes to policing strategies that will be debated or implemented, so they will constantly keep some new cause fresh in the name of Floyd and if any "progress" is made they will move the goal-posts to keep their "cause" perpetually unsatisfied and their supporters perpetually stirred up and unhappy. This will continue at least until the elections. I'm not sure I can see past the elections very well - am giving that some thought.

To your second question - oh, I think we are going to see a lasting effect. Of what type remains to be seen.

To your last question - I think the original demands will eventually morph, by those that actually try to implement something, into something more obtainable - perhaps uniform policing reforms. (In any city that does attempt to actually eliminate their current police departments and replace them with some utopian community organizing / counseling function, etc, that would be short-lived, for the city would collapse due to any number of knock-on effects from that - if nothing else due to complete flight of anyone who still has both capital resources and the ability to leave, combined with the complete inability to get insurance, not to mention the collapse of the real estate market and collapse of tax revenues. The crazies spouting this useless drivel haven't given the results even a split second of thought.) I think uniform standards for policing - if done properly - would be helpful; I personally would like to see those reforms for myself - police abuse of white males as a function of tribal conviction rate and overall population ratio is actually (contrary to the crap being accepted as fact) about 2.5 times worse for white males than black males (the data is easy to find, and it is fairly consistent no matter how you parse the data). However in our current sociopolitical climate I have no strong conviction that any reforms would be done properly.

[shinnosuke]

As usual, 68, your responses are very thorough and succinct.

The current White House administration endorsed Juan Guaido as the new president of Venezuela. I think of the effects of something like that on Venezuelan politics and it seems that our own political system camel is getting a few too many straws.

But then I've been a fatalist for a long time. Somebody convince me I'm wrong this time...again.

[68Camaro]

I dunno. The difficulty is that there is no accurate method to determine the actual pulse of the country short of secret ballot - the elections - provided the elections aren't subverted. Polls have proven to be completely unreliable for the past 5 years because of social shaming and bullying by a dominant media presence from the left. The nation is split in two to the point where a small number of people have the capacity to change the course of the nation. A great many (I'm just not sure how many) people who think conservatively will not publicly voice their views because they have seen that disagreement means they will be labelled any or all of racist, stupid, dangerous, violent or terrorists. I believe at least 40% of the population is pro Trump. Another 15% might be considering voting for him. But what the real numbers will be on election day is anyone's guess.

There is also a strong minority of rino-style never trumpers who appear to be willing to accept a mentally incompetent Biden over Trump - which illustrates their degree of hate. They are wild cards.

I believe much of the under 35 population has been at least temporarily brainwashed.

My tendency is to believe (or hope) that the published polls are completely unreliable and trump will seize the day again. But I'm asking myself what a Biden win combined with loss of the Senate means for the next 4 to 8 years.

[shinnosuke]

I'm sorry. I'm buying ammo. Mostly stuff that the women around me can shoot and get back on target quickly.

[68Camaro]

If you're short that's definitely a high priority.

[fasteddy]

I made my goal on ammo earlier in the year of 5k, 5k 10K+ on the most popular calibers...now I am stocking up on the components to build ammo...I am currently at 2k, 2k with a little more to go. I purchased equipment to make 243 30-06 and 7 mag not really for prepping but for better accuracy on those long shots...well maybe it is for prepping.